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The Reception of Driving 88

Rockie Fresh: “I just put out Driving 88 and I was like, ‘Man, this did decent. At least I’ll be able to do some shows off of it. Couple of more people respect me.’ I fell after listening to it more and more, ‘Man, this could actually be something classic.’ I’m kind of salty that this didn’t get the appreciation that may it should have. Then XXL gave it a four out of five stars. So I was like, ‘Ok, that’s decent. I’m with that. Shout out to XXL.’ And then, more of the offers started coming in. ‘Alright, cool. These are decent situations.’

I never expected people like Ross and Diddy to reach out just because I didn’t think it would get to their ears.

“I never expected people like Ross and Diddy to reach out just because I didn’t think it would get to their ears. I just had a different type of appeal that was a gift, but it was just something that they weren’t going to see at the height that they [are] at. So when they started taking interest to it, I was like, ‘Alright, it’s game time.’ This is what it's meant to be and I gotta make the best out of the situation and really make it something classic.”

“With that, thinking about all that stuff as far as taking meetings with these guys. It was, ‘Alright, where do I go next musically?’ How do they take Driving 88? When I heard them break it down without me even asking, then it was like, ‘Wow, ok. I see what I did.’ At that point, I was so in the zone that I didn’t even really realize what I was doing. Then when they said, ‘Oh, yeah, when you sampled sub track. Sample Skrillex and put in Project Pat in the same sample.’ ‘Or when you did X ... you really pushed the envelope.’ And I was like, ‘Man, that’s crazy. I did’ [Laughs.]

“It made me even have to backpedal with Electric Highway more and look at the records that I recorded for it. And see like, ‘Man, is this really a progression of Driving 88?’ Or is just me trying to be an impressive rapper. Now that I look back on it, it’s helping me make Electric Highway a lot doper because I really did set a sound and a vibe with Driving 88 that people would want to hear on a higher level.”